Conferences

Over the last month I attended three different conferences around Tampa and that was more than I attended all of last year. Every conference I feel like I want to dump some thoughts on somebody about said event, but this time I just want to generalize it all from 10 years of conferences and blog about it.

Networking

There is no doubt in my mind that networking at conferences is the best use of attending one. You just never realize if that connection you made, conversation you had ends up helping you down the line or in reverse you helping someone else. Not only that but catching up with previous coworkers or technology like-minded folks is amazing.

Trading conversation about projects, tools or rants with people that understand the context is something you didn't have when explaining mod chips at the dinner table 20 years ago. So always a wonderful change of pace to talk some real nerdy stuff with a different group of people to hear different perspectives than you might not find with friends/coworkers.

Talks

This is where I have the most conflicting thoughts in my head regarding conferences. The amount of times I read a synopsis or title and attend a talk and then have the talk let me down is larger than I'd like. Take for example a topic that was "xxx security" and then the first 30 minutes was explaining in mega details of what "xxx" was. I just felt so depressed sitting in that talk learning the absolute basics of some terms and then learning next to nothing about the security aspect.

Next is the talks that are clearly just a long winded advertisement for some company. A few talks I've attended just felt so odd - like Wikipedia level explanations of topics followed by far in-depth details about some platform/service that would make something better. I understand these companies probably sponsored a large chunk of said conference, but to misrepresent a talk to sell a service/product is just insulting to me.

However, the times I sit in a talk and are blown away from the knowledge or speaking skills of an individual outweigh the negative and these experiences make it worthwhile.

Swag

Conference swag is a mixed bag for me. At one point in my life where I was attaching every sticker I got onto my desktop - I wanted more of them. Now at a different point in life with computers without stickers, it just seemed like stuff I had to carry along all day and just wasn't interested. Now a t-shirt I'm always down to obtain because that's a great shirt to wear at local meetup events to spark conversations.

I just believe I am attending a conference for networking and talks so grabbing a bunch of swag like items is never high up on my list. Generally swag I obtained (like pictured above) is when its given in batch along with the t-shirt.

Venue

I've come to really appreciate any venue a conference is hosted, especially if the cost of attending was zero. I say this because just organizing little technology meetups there is often a challenge of finding a venue that is either free or relatively cheap to book. If you find success with a topic/meetup that only grows the following which makes finding the next sized venue just a bit more difficult.

So when I attend a local Tampa conference whether its 20 people, 200 people or 1,200 people I'm just extremely appreciative of the effort of organizers who solidified that choice. I can't imagine the logistics for a large conference and the trust a venue places in a group of random people to not absolutely regret their choice.

Now I'm far from a conference regular, but I'll make a solid effort to attend interesting conferences around the Tampa area. Hopefully I can speak at most of those, but much like I tend to critique every aspect of a conference that doesn't exclude me - as I can always improve on my own speaking.

A Cicada 3301 talk awaits in October 2024, but this is a simple meetup so I'll probably have to wait till 2025 for another round of conferences.